Wilderness
by Tiger Girl1
Summary: Harry Potter/Tamora Pierce/David Eddings/Valdemar/Voyager crossover. A series of seeming accidents strands people from many different worlds in the wilderness, leaving them at the mercy of the enigmatic Marai and the Child Goddess Aphrael. Please review!
1. The Adservioso Spell

**Author's Note:** I started out just wanting to put these characters together and see what happened. What happened is that they have taken the story and run with it! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of these characters. They are the property of J.K. Rowling, Tamora Pierce, Paramount, Mercedes Lackey, and David Eddings.

**Chapter 1: The Adservioso Spell**

Three young wizards sat listlessly in the Gryffindor common room. It was the last week of their fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and somehow none of the three felt much like going home. Harry Potter, especially, was quite depressed. For a few elated moments he had actually thought he had won the Triwizard Tournament's gold cup, jointly with the other contestant from his school, Cedric Diggory. That was before they had found out that the cup was a portkey, and Voldemort had whisked them away and killed Diggory almost out of hand. He could hear the Dark Lord's cold, evil voice in his head still: "Kill the spare." Harry had barely escaped with his life, but the fact that he had escaped at all while Cedric hadn't made him feel almost guilty.

"Harry, Ron, come here a moment!" The excited voice was Hermione's. She had spent the past half hour with her nose in a large book of spells she had found in a corner of the library. Harry and Ron had a sneaking suspicion that it had been left outside the restricted section by mistake, and had advised Hermione not to read it, but Hermione, usually the most cautious of the three, was absolutely reckless when it came to interesting books. She had pooh-poohed their worries and promptly curled up in a chair to read it.

They left their chess game – neither had really been concentrating on it anyway – and moved to either side of the chair to look over Hermione's shoulder at the page of the book she was pointing to. At the top of the page in a flowing script was the inscription: "The Adservioso Spell: Find out where you're needed most."

"It's a charm," said Hermione, squirming with excitement, "that will instantly take you to the people who most need your help! Isn't that a useful spell?"

"It sounds like a good one," Ron said. "Do you think we could try it?"

"Ron, are you out of your mind?" screeched Hermione. "Didn't you read the warnings? Look," she pointed at the bottom of the page. It read:

"Hazards: Warning, this spell is imprecise. There is no way to specify location or time frame. Others in your vicinity may be pulled in at random. The counterspell will not work until you have helped those who need you."

"Still sounds like fun," Ron said stubbornly. "No, listen, Hermione," he added in a lower voice as she opened her mouth to retort, "Harry's been really down lately. If we do something interesting, maybe he'll snap out of his slump."

Both friends glanced over at Harry, who had fallen into another brown study. Hermione sighed, then tossed her head. "All right," she said decisively. "Let's try it!"

Harry started and looked at his friends. "Try what?" he asked.

They spent several minutes carefully practicing the complicated wand movements, and saying the words until no one mispronounced them. "All right," Hermione finally said, "Ready? One, two, three – "

Their wands moved synchronously as they said the words of the spell, "Adservioso complicatioso!"

----------------------------

Minerva McGonagall had a bad feeling about this. She had been studying Herb Servus' book of spells in the library when she had heard sounds of sobbing from behind a nearby shelf of books. She had put the book in a shadowed corner where she could pick it up later and gone to investigate. After doing her best to comfort Cho, who was still devastated by Cedric Diggory's death, Minerva had gone back to that corner of the library only to find that the spell book was missing. Hermione Granger had been the only other student in the library, and Minerva didn't think she would have been able to resist taking the book if she'd found it lying on the floor.

Silently berating herself for her carelessness, Professor McGonagall left the library and hurried in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. She had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and opened her mouth to speak the password when there was a flash of purple light. When the light dimmed, Minerva was standing alone in the middle of a desert. "Hermione!" she called. There was no response.

------------------------------------------

Severus Snape was afraid, which made him a hundred times more irritable than he normally was. In just two days he was going to have to answer the Death Eater's call and enter the Dark Lord's service again. He would, as he had before, be a spy for Dumbledore, and the mere thought of what Voldemort could do to him if he ever found that out was enough to make him tremble all over. A student brushed against him on her way upstairs, and he glared at her. Hermione Granger blanched and clutched the enormous book she held closer to her chest. "Sorry, Professor," she whispered as she hurried up the stairs toward the Gryffindor common room. Snape glowered and continued on his way to meet Minerva McGonagall, who was researching some spells for him.

Nearly twenty minutes later, McGonagall had still not arrived for their meeting. Severus was getting more than a little irritated. And there was something else bothering him too. Irritably, he wondered what it could possibly be. Hermione Granger's book! Hadn't she been holding Herb Servus' book of spells? That was restricted material! How had she gotten hold of it? Honestly, after all that had happened you'd think Potter and his friends would learn to stay out of things that didn't concern them!

Angry now, as well as irritated and afraid, Snape strode furiously toward the Gryffindor common room. As he approached the portrait, he saw Minerva standing in front of it. He opened his mouth to demand to know why she'd kept him waiting, when suddenly there was a flash of purple light. When his vision cleared, he was standing in the middle of a desert, and Minerva was nowhere in sight.

-------------------------------------------

"Is this going to work?" Briar Moss asked his teacher.

Rosethorn looked up from the herb bed she was weeding and surveyed Briar and Sandry's work with a critical eye. "Time will show," she said. "But it looks like it should. Well done, Sandry."

Sandry glowed under the normally cross and prickly woman's praise and surveyed her handiwork with pride. Briar had been complaining that even the finely-woven netting he and Rosethorn put over the peach trees wasn't keeping the birds from eating the fruit as soon as it ripened. It had been Tris's idea to ask Sandry to weave magical nets to repel the birds and protect their fruit. Sandry was a thread-mage, her magic showing itself in the form of weaving and sewing, braiding and knots.

"Briar!" The boy was lying happily on the ground, all the nearby plants twining about him. Rosethorn's voice was sharp. "If you're done over there, why don't you get started weeding the corner bed?"

Briar sighed and carefully disengaged the plants. He and Rosethorn were both mages whose magic flowed through living, growing things. Unfortunately, much of Briar's practical training in his art consisted of weeding, weeding and more weeding. He didn't really mind, though he liked to complain sometimes to get Rosethorn's goat. Any work here was far better than his life on the streets had been.

He had just started pulling weeds, trying to make their death as quick and painless as possible, when Sandry's excited squeal made him look up. There in front of them were three kids about his own age. Two were boys, one tall and gangly with bright red hair, the other shorter, with unruly brown hair and eyeglasses. The other was a girl with heavy brown hair and wide eyes. They wore identical black robes and pointed hats and held sticks in their hands. All of them were pale and insubstantial—_Ghosts?_ He wondered—and they looked terrified. Even as the three mages watched, the shades began to fade. Briar could just make out the words forming on the girl's lips: "Help us."

Without stopping to think, Briar sent out a tendril of his green magic energy, connecting with a blue thread of Sandry's magic to wrap tightly around the three kids. They pulled with all their might. It didn't work, though. Instead of pulling the three strangers towards him, Briar found himself violently jerked away from his garden into …

"NO!" His teacher's voice was indistinct, as if it was coming from a great distance. He felt her magic wrapping around himself and Sandry. There was a flash of purple light, and then he and the boy with the glasses were standing alone in the middle of a desert.

"Sandry! Rosethorn!" Briar looked around wildly, but there was no sign of his mate or his teacher.

"Hermione?" the boy with the glasses yelled. "Ron! Where are you?"

There was no response.


	2. An Away Mission Gone Wrong

**Author's Note: **For those interested in where this falls in the timelines of particular stories, it is set between books 4 and 5 of Harry Potter, between the first and second cycles of Tamora Pierce's novels, between _By The Sword_ and the _Winds_ trilogy in Mercedes Lackey's world, and sometime after the episode _The Void_ in the Star Trek timeline.

**Disclaimer: **These are not my characters, I'm just playing with them!

**Chapter 2: An Away Mission Gone Wrong**

"I have good news and bad news," B'Elanna Torres told her captain.

"Let's hear it," Captain Kathryn Janeway said resignedly. Tom looked up from the helm of the small Delta Flyer to listen in, and even the Doctor turned away from his analysis of a med kit they had scavenged from an abandoned ship.

"The good news," the half-Klingon engineer continued, "is that that spatial rift does seem to lead to the Alpha Quadrant. At least, one of its branches does. I can't pinpoint where the other branch leads."

Tom let out a whoop, but Janeway's words silenced him. "And the bad news?"

B'Elanna sighed. "The bad news is that it's not a wormhole. It's a funnel rather like the one that pulled us into that void a couple weeks ago. This one appears to be stationary, but if we attempted to fly through it, we'd be torn to bits. The shields simply wouldn't stand the strain."

"Couldn't we use the same shield modifications we used to escape the void?" Tom asked.

B'Elanna shook her head. "No. The graviton pull is several million times greater inside this funnel. Even with the modifications, the shields will never hold. And that's not the only problem. It's a very small funnel. Even if we could modify the shields, Voyager wouldn't fit through it."

Janeway stood for a few moments in silent and furious thought. Then she turned swiftly to her computer console. "If we used the same shield modifications we used to escape the void," she thought out loud, quickly punching in calculations, "but used them on the Delta Flyer, we could double the frequency back on itself two—maybe three—times. Would that be enough to keep structural integrity intact?"

B'Elanna worked furiously at her own console. "Yes. Structural integrity would hold at 15% for approximately 45 seconds with your modifications. That's enough time to get us through the rift."

There was a tense silence aboard the shuttlecraft, as the four members of the away team stared at each other, trying to grasp the implications of what they had discovered.

"If we went through," Tom said slowly, his eyes flitting from his captain to his wife and back again, "We could hail Starfleet and have them modify several more shuttles and send them back for the others. We could all get home."

B'Elanna nodded. "But not the ship," she said.

"Not the ship," the captain echoed. Then she straightened. "B'Elanna, get started on those modifications. Tom, take us back within hailing range of Voyager. Doctor, let's make sure none of this," she gestured to the scavenged equipment, "is going to become dangerous at 15% structural integrity. We can at least go through and get further orders from Starfleet Command."

---------------------------

Three hours later, the small Delta Flyer again hovered at the entrance to the strange spatial rift. Janeway looked around at her small crew. Tom Paris was at the helm, ready, waiting only for her orders. B'Elanna was running a last system check on their shield modifications. Finally she looked up and nodded. Everything was ready. The Doctor stood at ops, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. Janeway moved to her station at tactical, made eye contact with every member of her crew, then spoke. "Let's do it, Mr. Paris. Engage."

"Entering spatial rift," Tom said, his hands moving expertly over his controls. "30 seconds to the exit point."

"Structural integrity at 70%," came B'Elanna's clipped, precise voice. "60% … 50 …"

"20 seconds to the exit point."

"Captain," the Doctor's voice sounded alarm, "I'm reading a huge increase in graviton pressure!"

"Cause!" Janeway barked.

"The exit point to the Alpha Quadrant is closing!"

"Reversing course," Paris said, anticipating his captain's order.

"Structural integrity holding at 15%," B'Elanna said.

The ship shook as if hit by weapons fire. Janeway rocked forward and hit her head on the console in front of her. "Report!" she yelled, ignoring the pain.

"Captain, the--I don't believe this!--the entrance point is closing as well," the Doctor replied. "If we don't get out of here, this rift is going to close in on itself and disappear, squashing us out of existence along with it!"

"Structural integrity down to 10%!" B'Elanna cried. "Nine … Eight …"

"Warning," the computer's emotionless voice said, "core overload in five seconds."

"Captain, the third exit point is still open!" Tom said. "I can get us out that way."

"Do it, Tom! Now!"

"Warning, warp core breach imminent."

"Five seconds to the exit point! Four … Three … Two … One – "

There was a blinding flash of blue light, as the shuttle hurtled through the exit point into …

Captain Janeway found herself standing alone in the middle of a desert, disheveled and aching, but otherwise unharmed. She looked around wildly for some indication of shuttle debris and slapped her com badge. "Janeway to Delta Flyer! Respond! Janeway to Paris! B'Elanna? Doctor?"

No one answered.

-----------------------------

B'Elanna Torres blinked her watering eyes and stared around at the bleak landscape in what she quickly recognized was shock. As an attempt to force herself out of shock, she practiced thinking as clearly and logically as possible. This sure as hell wasn't Stovelcor, which meant she wasn't dead. But one minute she had been aboard a shuttle whose warp core was about to breach, and the next she was standing alone in the middle of a goddamned desert!

The sound of galloping hooves behind her startled her out of her shock just as her temper was beginning to get the better of her logic. She whirled and pulled out her phaser. _Well,_ the logical part of her mind amended, _maybe not alone._

Before she could do more than point her weapon in the general direction of her unknown enemy, said enemy had vaulted from the back of a white horse in full gallop, landed in a controlled roll that brought her to her feet in front of B'Elanna, grabbed the arm that held the phaser, twisted it painfully behind her back, and aimed a dagger at her throat. The horse stopped, paced slowly back, and picked the phaser B'Elanna had dropped gently up in its teeth.

"Nice try, changechild," snarled a barbaric woman dressed in white that matched her horse. "You'll have to be a little faster with your mage blasts next time."

_Oh, great_, B'Elanna thought sarcastically. _Not only is she a barbarian, she's completely insane as well! _She didn't dignify the woman's words with a verbal reply.

The horse, which, B'Elanna realized, was behaving rather strangely, walked up to them and presented the phaser in its teeth to the white-clad woman. _:That is no changechild, Chosen,:_ the words echoed in B'Elanna's head. _:She was trying to use this weapon on you.:_

"What is it?" the woman asked, as if talking to a telepathic horse was the most normal thing in the world.

_:I don't know,: _the horse admitted.

"And while you're at it," the woman added, now sounding more than a little annoyed, "You might tell me where we _are_ as well! Did she gate us here?"

"Your making a mistake." B'Elanna choked the words past the dagger, a snarl of her own in her voice. "If a gate—whatever that is—brought us here, you know more than I do! And I wasn't going to fire on you unless you proved hostile. Which," she added, "you certainly did."

The woman slowly moved the dagger several inches from B'Elanna's throat, but she did not sheath it, nor did she loose her grip on the Klingon's arm. "I thought you were going to send a levin-bolt at me," she said.

"What the hell is a—" B'Elanna was interrupted by the chirp of her com badge.

"Tom to B'Elanna! Anyone? Are you there?" Tom's voice sounded a little frantic.

Before her captor could recover from her obvious startelment, B'Elanna had reflexively slapped her com badge. "Yes! I'm here! But I'm being held captive by a wildwoman and a telepathic horse!"

Tom's relieved chuckle wheezed through the com link. "There's a redheaded boy here who says he's a wizard. Since my phaser is hanging in midair, I'm inclined to believe him!"

"Tom, what—" The com badge emitted a buzz of static. "Tom? Are you there?" B'Elanna slapped her com badge again, but there was no familiar little chirp this time. "Damn! Look," she said to the woman who's dagger was again a centimeter from her throat, "If I promise not to hurt you, will you let me go? That was my husband, and if you don't mind I'd like to pinpoint his coordinates and find him so we can locate the rest of our shipmates."

The woman warily sheathed her dagger and let go of B'Elanna's arm. "I think maybe we misunderstood one another," she said, with an inscrutable expression worthy of Captain Janeway. "I am Herald-Captain Kerowyn of Valdemar, by the way."

B'Elanna shook the woman's proffered hand cautiously. "Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres."

The woman raised her eyebrows. "You're with a Company?"

B'Elanna frowned. "I'm the chief engineer aboard the starship Voyager. What's a Company?"

"I am the captain of the Skybolts, a mercenary company now in the permanent service of the Queen of Valdemar. What's a starship?" She shot the question back.

B'Elanna's frown deepened. Obviously, whoever this woman was, her civilization didn't even have basic technology, let alone warp capability. "I am not permitted to answer that question," she said.

Captain Kerowyn frowned too. "Why not?" she asked suspiciously. "Who created you, changechild? Or did you change yourself?"

"Uh—that's not a term I'm familiar with," B'Elanna said. "If you mean my forehead ridges," she touched them self-consciously with one hand, "I'm only half human. My mother was a Klingon."

"A what?"

The horse, who seemed to be finding the whole conversation amusing, now pawed the ground impatiently with one hoof and entered the conversation a second time. _:Chosen, I don't think you and this woman are from even remotely similar places.:_ The horse's sapphire-blue eyes favored B'Elanna with a glance that seemed to see into her soul. B'Elanna looked away quickly. _:Not only is this woman a different species, as she has said, she is from a completely different planet.:_

Kerowyn looked as stunned as if she'd been struck by a bat'leth, but even so, her next word showed a keen and resourceful intelligence. "Starship!" she exclaimed with dawning understanding.


	3. Aphrael Steps In

**Author's Note: **For the Eddings characters, this story falls at the end of _The Ellenium_, before Sephrenia leaves.

**Disclaimer: **I'm just borrowing these characters, please don't sue me!

**Chapter 3: Aphrael Steps In**

"Aphrael, I don't understand." The small, dark-haired woman's voice was soft and strangely lyrical.

The young girl standing before her rolled her eyes. "You don't have to understand, Sephrenia," her piping, childish voice said in a strangely adult manner. "This is where you are supposed to be, and I have to leave you here."

"But where is Sparhawk? And Talen? Are they still on their way to Demos?" The white-robed woman sounded a little exasperated.

The little girl shook her head and sighed loudly. "No, they're where they're supposed to be, too."

"But didn't you want Talen to train as a Pandion?"

"Please don't argue with me, Sephrenia, I'm rather busy at the moment!"

The woman sighed. "All right, Aphrael."

Kathryn Janeway quietly pulled out her tricorder and began to take some quick readings of the two humanoids she was eavesdropping on from the sparse cover of some bushes that bore a superficial resemblance to sagebrush. The woman's DNA was nearly identical to that of a human, though there were some subtle variations. But the child—

As soon as Kathryn turned her attention to her, the little girl turned her head in a startled manner and looked intently into the bushes. "I have to go, Sephrenia," she said quickly, and vanished. When Kathryn looked back at her tricorder, the readings she had taken of the girl had been wiped from its database.

The dark-haired woman had turned toward the bushes. When she saw Kathryn, she smiled gently. "Please come out," she said.

Feeling strangely like a child caught with her hand in a cookie jar, Kathryn stood up and approached the woman. "I am Kathryn Janeway. I come in peace," she said.

"I am Sephrenia," the woman responded, a lilt in her voice that made Kathryn think she was amused. "What brings you to this place, Kathryn Janeway?"

The captain shrugged, a corner of her mouth tugging upward. "An accident. I've been separated from my crew. From what I gather from your conversation with the other—being—this is not your home either."

The woman smiled an enigmatic smile. "No. In fact, I don't think I'm even on the same world."

Turning to practical considerations, Kathryn glanced up at the blazing sun that beat down on the hot sand they stood on. "I think, for the moment, we're going to need to find water and shelter, in that order. After that, we can coordinate a search for our missing companions."

Sephrenia laughed. "You bear quite a resemblance to the Elenes who are my companions. I see that you too favor logic."

"You should meet Commander Tuvok." Kathryn chuckled. "Do you have any objection to my suggested course of action?" she added diplomatically.

"Not at all."

The captain took out her tricorder, while the Styric woman began muttering softly under her breath. Several moments later they turned to one another and said simultaneously, "There is water in that direction." They were both pointing the same way.

Both women laughed, and they began walking.

"I'd like to know how you did that," Kathryn said, watching the woman beside her closely.

"It was what the Elenes call Styric magic. I simply made the proper formal request and received an answer. I must confess a similar curiosity about your methods," Sephrenia gave Captain Janeway a measuring glance.

"I suppose you might call this magic, too," Kathryn answered, gesturing with her tricorder. "It's a machine we've built to do calculations and gather and record information."

"Ah," Sephrenia nodded. "I had wondered if that was where Elene logic might eventually lead. So you requested the information from your machine." Her lips curved into an impish smile. "Aphrael would hate that."

"The being who brought you here?" Kathryn asked.

"Yes." Sephrenia looked at her curiously. "That doesn't seem to surprise you."

"We've been exploring different worlds long enough to fully accept the fact that there are beings out there with technologies we can't even begin to comprehend," Janeway said. "Some of them are interfering and infuriating, some are very dangerous, some are simply beyond our comprehension, but they are out there."

Sephrenia gave Kathryn a very strange look. "We'll have to talk more about this sometime."

The captain's answer died on her lips as the sound of shouting and scuffling came to their ears. The sounds seemed to be coming from a grove of trees in the distance. With a hurried glance at one another, the two women reached a tacit agreement and quickened their pace.

"Show your face, or suffer the consequences," were the first words they could pick up, spoken in a smooth, unpleasant male voice.

There was a sound of a sword being drawn. "I don't much like your tone, neighbor," a second man said in a deceptively quiet baritone.

"Oh, no," Sephrenia murmured, and began to run.

"I take it that you know that man?" Janeway remarked, matching the small woman's pace easily.

"Oh yes. That's Sparhawk."

"Petrificus Totalus!" The first voice said in a ringing command tone.

Sephrenia slowed, a shudder wracking her tiny frame. Her lips and hands moved in slow measured gestures.

There was a clanking sound, as if someone in armor were staggering around. Then it stopped, and the second voice rasped out angrily, "Don't ever try that again, neighbor, unless you'd prefer your head mounted on a stake rather than securely on your shoulders!"

"My wand!" the first voice cried.

"Since when do Zemochs need wands?" the second snarled.

"Stand down, both of you!" The new voice was a very familiar tenor.

"Doctor!" Kathryn gasped.

They reached the trees and burst in on the scene. A man in full armor of some deep, black metal held a sword to the throat of another man in a black robe. The Doctor held the scene immobile as he pointed his phaser at the two men.

"Doctor, what is going on?" Janeway demanded in her best command voice.

"Sparhawk, let him go!" Sephrenia cried imperiously at the same time. "What do you think you're doing?"

The Doctor lowered his phaser, Sparhawk sheathed his sword and raised his visor, and both men turned to the two women with identical sheepish, yet exasperated expressions on their faces. The third man snorted and bent to pick up a small wooden stick that Kathryn supposed was his "wand."

"Captain, these two were about to kill each other—" the Doctor began self-righteously.

"And I suppose you thought adding your weapon to the mix would solve everything!" the captain snapped, glaring at him. The Doctor swallowed and stepped back a pace.

"He's a Zemoch, Little Mother, and I didn't care for his attitude!" the big knight growled.

"Don't be silly, Sparhawk," the tiny woman said impatiently. "That man is no more a Zemoch than I am! And threatening to behead him is not going to improve his attitude."

"But he cast a spell at me!" Sparhawk protested.

Sephrenia nodded. "Yes, he did. And you were lucky I was nearby to counter it or you would be completely petrified right now." She frowned. "It was not Styric magic, however."

"Sir," Captain Janeway turned to the tall, pale, black-robed man. "It might help if you could tell us who you are and where you come from."

"I am Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in England," the man said, an expression of extreme affront on his face. " I suppose I can tell you that, since at least some of you aren't Muggles. I don't know where I am, but I do have a very good idea how I got here, and when I find the students who think playing with dangerous spells is a good way to begin the summer holidays, they are going to regret the day they were born!"

---------------------------

Briar Moss watched the five adults with wide eyes. He knew, of course, that adults didn't always get along very well with one another—a case in point was his own teacher Rosethorn's ongoing rivalry with Dedicate Crane. But he had never seen a group of adults as violently angry as some of the people in this group seemed. He was rather glad he and his new friend were hidden high in the branches of a kindly old tree.

------------------------------

Harry Potter watched the adults alongside Briar, but his eyes were wide with shock. How in the world had they managed to pull Snape, of all people, into their spell? And who were all these others? Were he and Ron and Hermione responsible for their presence too? Harry shook his head in confusion and pushed his glasses up on his nose. All he knew for sure was that he was very, very glad he and Briar were up in this tree, out of sight. Because if Professor Snape got hold of him now, he would certainly kill him and save Lord Voldemort the trouble!


	4. Take A Thief

**Disclaimer: **If I owned these characters, this would be a published novel and I would be rich. Since this is on ff.n and I am a poor music teacher… You get the idea!

**Author's Note: **Yes, I plagiarized the title for this chapter. It belongs to Mercedes Lackey, but it fit so perfectly!

**Chapter 4: Take a Thief**

Sandry and Hermione stood beside their teachers in chastened silence. Professor McGonagall had used a point-me spell to locate Hermione, and Dedicate Rosethorn had followed the thread of Sandry's magic that had become tangled in her own back to its source. The moment their respective teachers had caught up with them, both children had received a blistering lecture about the efficacy of thinking ahead before using powerful magic. Professor McGonagall's face had never been so white, nor her lips so thin. Rosethorn's had never looked so angry.

When the two magic instructors finished their lectures and turned to one another, their lips had suddenly begun twitching oddly. If Hermione hadn't known better, she'd have thought they were trying not to laugh.

"Dedicate Rosethorn of Winding Circle Temple in Emelan," Rosethorn said in a stiff tone of voice that yet had an strange lilt to it.

"Professor McGonagall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in London," Professor McGonagall said in return. The two mages shook hands. "I don't suppose you have any idea where we are?" Professor McGonagall added.

Dedicate Rosethorn shook her head. "No. And what is troubling to me is that none of these plants is familiar to me in the slightest way." Sandry looked startled and a bit frightened at this. Professor McGonagall merely looked as puzzled as Hermione felt.

"I am a plant mage," Rosethorn said to the two Hogwarts denizens. "My magic works through growing things. As such, I am familiar with at least a few plants in every part of the world. None of these plants are any species I have ever come across."

"My specialty is transfiguration," Professor McGonagall said slowly, "but I so know quite a bit of herbology, and I must say, nothing here seems to be within my knowledge either."

"Professor McGonagall?" Hermione said softly, unsure of the reception her input would receive.

"Yes?"

"Some of these plants look like plants you'd find in a desert in the Muggle world."

"Do they?" Professor McGonagall said thoughtfully. "Then possibly that is where we are."

"Muggle world?" Sandry asked Hermione in an undertone. "What's that?"

"Where we come from, witches and wizards live separately from the non- magic folk. We call the people without magic Muggles," Hermione answered in a whisper.

"Much as I would like to know where we are," Dedicate Rosethorn interposed, "I am equally interested in why we are here. I assume that this is your responsibility?" This last was addressed to Hermione.

"Yes—at least in part," the young witch gulped. "I found this book of spells. I knew it was from the restricted section," here a guilty look at Professor McGonagall, "but it looked so interesting that I read it anyway. When I found the Adservioso Spell, I called my best friends over to look. Ron thought that trying it would—well, would cheer Harry up, so we did." Hermione's eyes were fixed firmly on her boots. Now that she had to explain their reasoning, she herself felt that she had never heard anything so dumb in her life. She waited in apprehension for another lecture from both teachers about their sheer stupidity.

But Professor McGonagall's voice was almost gentle as she addressed Dedicate Rosethorn. "I'm afraid that I must take some responsibility for this lamentable accident myself," she said. Hermione looked up, startled. "I left the book of spells out while I went to attend to another matter. It was a lapse in judgment on my part. These students have just been through a terrible ordeal in which one of their classmates was killed. I couldn't have expected them to be at their most reasonable."

"Whatever it was, it must have been hard for you, too, if one of your students died," Sandry piped up.

Professor McGonagall looked startled, but Dedicate Rosethorn nodded. "You may not have been at your most reasonable, yourself," she said, brusquely. "But this spell. What was it supposed to accomplish, besides the cheering up of Hermione's friend Harry?"

"That's what I don't understand, Professor," Hermione said. "It said it was supposed to take us to the people who most needed our help. There's no one here at all except for these people, and they were trying to help us!"

Before Professor McGonagall could answer, she was engulfed in an explosion of green light. When it dimmed, everyone stared in amazement at a young man in a tattered black tunic and leggings, who was hanging upside-down in the air above their heads. In his hands he clutched a small, green velvet pouch.

Professor McGonagall looked appalled. Her lips thinning almost to the point of disappearing entirely, she stalked over and snatched the pouch from the boy's hands. It chinked softly as she tied it back onto her sash.

The boy had lost the frightened, bewildered look he had first worn. He grinned impishly at the stiffly outraged professor, a mixture of mischief and respect in his grey eyes. "How'd you do that?" he asked.

"You are very lucky that I don't use anti-theft spells that harm the thief, young man!" Professor McGonagall said severely.

"Anti-theft spell?" the boy echoed, still from his midair-upside-down position. "My lady, I've been a thief for most of my life, and I've never heard of anything like that! Do you know how much money you could make with that?"

"I'm sure I could earn quite a satisfactory living with it, if that were my objective," Professor McGonagall said stiffly. "However, it is not."

The boy's eyes grew crafty. "Then, could you teach it to me?"

Hermione and Sandry giggled, earning a quelling look from Dedicate Rosethorn.

"It seems to me that someone in your profession would benefit a good deal more from knowing the counterspell," Professor McGonagall said, eyes narrowing in a way that boded no good.

"Is there one? Could you teach me that too?" the boy asked eagerly. Then, with a bit less panache, he added, "Could you put me down?"

"That depends on who you are and how you got here," she told him firmly.

"My name is Talen. I was a thief and beggar until my father found out about it. Now he and Sparhawk are going to try to make a knight out of me."

"That sounds like a very tall-tale to me," Professor McGonagall said. "Knights and beggars indeed! I don't suppose I can expect a straight answer on how you came to be here either."

"Oh that," the boy said carelessly. "Aphrael put me here. She says I'm needed here, but she wouldn't explain why. I was on my way to Demos with Sephrenia and Sparhawk to begin my training as a Pandion. Please, all the blood is rushing into my head!"

"Aphrael put you here!" the professor muttered disbelievingly. The boy's face really was turning an interesting shade of purple, however. She sighed resignedly and took out her wand. "Finite Incantatum."

Talen fell to the ground in a heap, but sprang to his feet at once. "I don't expect you to believe me about Aphrael," he said reasonably, "but I am telling the truth. For once in my life. Where are we?"

"We don't know that either," Sandry said earnestly. "Your Aphrael didn't tell you?"

"Nope. But how come you don't know? Aren't you from here?"

"So far we haven't met anyone from here," Hermione said. "We all got here because we made some kind of mistake performing a complicated magic spell. Here, your trousers are torn." She pulled out her own wand. "Bracarum Reparum!" Instantly the trouser leg was whole again.

Talen looked at the girl in amazement. "How did you do that?" he asked.

Hermione smiled smugly. "Just a simple spell."

Professor McGonagall stepped between the two young people, thrusting Hermione rather abruptly behind her. "Enough nonsense," she said severely. "It is time to think about finding some shelter before we all get heatstroke."

"We'll need water, too," Dedicate Rosethorn said. "I can be of help, I believe." Her eyes glazed over for a moment, and when they refocused, she said, "There is a large grove of trees in that direction. They are fed by a brook about a mile into the grove."

"What are we to do with the boy?" queried Professor McGonagall.

Dedicate Rosethorn shrugged. "I don't see where we have any choice but to take him with us and keep an eye on him. If he is like the rest of us, perhaps one of his companions is here, too. We can search for them when we try to locate our own people."

Professor McGonagall nodded and addressed the young people. "Well? Let's get on then."

------------------------------------

"Hmmm…. Interesting. Do another one, would you?" B'Elanna Torres murmured, staring intently at her tricorder. Kerowyn and her Companion watched intently. Tom rolled his eyes. B'Elanna and her strange white-clad, mercenary captain friend had come galloping over to them on the telepathic horse with the weird eyes not half an hour ago. Since then, they had done nothing but stand around while his newfound red-headed wizard friend did magic tricks for her to analyze.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The sword at Kerowyn's side rose deftly out of its sheath at her side and sailed easily into the air, following the direction of Ron's uplifted wand. Tom noticed that the Herald looked very uncomfortable with this latest development. He could sympathize. He'd felt much the same when the kid had deprived him of his phaser. He tried to flash the woman a reassuring grin, but she didn't appear to notice him. B'Elanna's tricorder beeped and chirped as she single-mindedly observed and manipulated the data it was picking up. The sword did several slow loop-de-loops in the air. _So, what? We all just stand here until we get heatstroke while my wife plays with her new toy? _Tom sighed gustily, but he might as well have saved his breath. No one paid any attention.

_:Oh, now this I really do not appreciate!:_ An acerbic and extremely annoyed female voice echoed suddenly and painfully in their minds. Startled, everyone turned to stare at Kerowyn's Companion, except for Kero herself, who was staring at her sword. The others belatedly followed her gaze. A flash of gold light surrounded the sword and arched back towards the young wizard who manipulated it. CRACK! As the light hit the tip of the boy's wand, there was a deafening noise. Ron fell backwards abruptly. The sword fell, point first, toward the ground. Everyone leaped out of its path.

"Dammit, Need!" Kerowyn ran toward the weapon, while everyone else stood, stunned. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?!"

_:He was making me seasick,:_ the same rusty voice replied soundlessly.

"_Seasick!_" Kerowyn bellowed incredulously as B'Elanna shook herself from a state of shock that was becoming habitual and hurried to the collapsed wizard. Tom followed. The white-clad woman shook her head disgustedly and looked over at them. "Is he all right?"

B'Elanna nodded. "I think so. He's just stunned. Whatever energy was flowing through that 'wand' of his was somehow turned back onto him. He got a nasty jolt, like an electric shock."

Kerowyn picked up the sword and stalked over to the boy. The starship lieutenants eyed her warily. Kero rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to murder him with this gods-be-dammed sword, don't worry," she snarled. Her next words were directed toward the blade as well as her companions. "This stinkin' hunk of tin is going to heal him, or by Astera's arse I am going to leave it here on this gods-forsaken planet when I go!"

Tom and B'Elanna exchanged looks of puzzlement. The sword sighed. _:I suppose I know better by now than to argue with you when you take that tone.:_

Kerowyn snorted. "I should think so."

Tom couldn't help himself. "Your sword _talks_?" he blurted.

The Herald gave him a swift look of amusement as she squatted by the boy and laid the sword gently against him. "You didn't seem very surprised by my talking horse," she countered. "Why should this surprise you?"

B'Elanna favored her newfound friend with a puzzled and slightly sarcastic stare. "Where we come from, inanimate objects aren't generally sentient," she said.

"They aren't where I come from either," Kero snorted. "As far as I know, this piece of tin is one-of-a-kind. And a damn good thing, too," she added under her breath.

_:I heard that,:_ Need muttered testily.

"Where did you find it?" Tom asked, squatting by the young wizard to take a closer look. Remembering the golden light that had flashed from it, he refrained from touching it.

Kerowyn grinned. "It found me. It belonged to my grandmother Kethry, but when I showed up on her doorstep, begging for help on a hopeless quest, the thing _demanded_ to be given to me. It saved my life that night, and I've been stuck with it ever since."

Tom almost asked what hopeless quest she had been on, but his Starfleet etiquette stopped the words before they could escape from his mouth. B'Elanna looked equally curious. Kerowyn appeared to notice their expressions and opened her mouth to speak, but at that moment Ron coughed and sat up.

"Wha—happened?" he croaked.

"Seems that sword you were performing magic tricks with is alive," Tom told the boy. "It didn't take kindly to being tossed around in the air."

_:You were making me seasick,:_ the sword repeated. _:I didn't mean to hurt you. Your magic is not compatible with mine.:_

"It isn't? I mean, you're magical?" Ron asked eagerly, apparently seeing nothing too strange about talking to a telepathic sword. "Wicked!"

_:Last I checked, I was one of the good guys,:_ the sword remarked irritably.

"Figure of speech."

"I hate to interrupt the party," Kerowyn broke in, "but if we don't find some water and shelter soon, we're gonna be toast in a few more hours."

Tom nodded his emphatic agreement. "Can you stand up?" he asked the boy.

"Sure!" Ron bounded to his feet, then swayed dizzily and would have fallen again if B'Elanna hadn't grabbed his elbow.

"Careful," she said. "You've been shocked pretty badly, and you're probably dehydrated too."

He nodded. "Thanks."

Kerowyn cocked her head as if listening. "Sayvil says there's water in that grove of trees over there," she pointed to her left.

B'Elanna pointed her tricorder in that direction and nodded. "There's a small spring of fresh water about three-point-two kilometers due south."

"Sayvil also says she'll carry the boy if I'll walk," Kero added.

"That's all right, you don't have to," Ron protested. "I'm fine, really."

B'Elanna shook her head. "I don't want to have to drag you all the way. Get up on that horse."

"But I—I've never ridden a horse before."

_:I am not a horse, boy,:_ Sayvil's mental voice rang in their heads. _:I'm a Companion. I won't let you fall. Get on.:_

Ron obeyed, with a boost from Tom. Kerowyn sheathed her now silent sword, and the small company set off toward the copse of trees in the distance.


	5. Many Meetings

**Chapter 5: Many Meetings**

"That's interesting," B'Elanna muttered, punching buttons on her tricorder as she walked. Tom rolled his eyes. She stepped on his foot.

"OW! That hurt!"

"Then pay attention when I talk, flyboy."

"I _was_ paying attention," Tom defended himself, as Kero and Ron smothered chuckles. "_What?_ What's so funny?"

"Were we laughing?" Ron asked, turning to Kerowyn with a lopsided grin.

"_I_ wasn't," Kero snickered. "Were you?"

"Not me. Must've been the Companion."

_:Me?:_ Sayvil's voice radiated exaggerated innocence.

"Or the sword," Ron amended.

"If someone could be serious for a minute—" B'Elanna sounded a bit exasperated.

Tom turned to her contritely. "Sorry, B'El. What's interesting?"

"The sword was right when it said her magic wasn't compatible with Ron's. Look at this." She handed him her tricorder. "According to my readings, something inside Ron's wand generates the kind of energy that he then uses his mind to somehow control. But Need pulls energy from the ground."

"I thought that kind of energy couldn't be tapped into," Tom frowned.

"I guess it can if you're a magic sword," B'Elanna shrugged.

"All mages in my world pull their magical energy from living things," Kerowyn volunteered. "Most have to use their own energy—what's inside them—and what they can pull from other living things. But the most powerful mages—we call them adepts—can tap into leylines and magical nodes in the earth itself."

B'Elanna shook her head. "It's hard to imagine humans with the power to channel that kind of energy. It would fry a normal person's neural network."

Kero nodded. "Mages have what they call 'channels' in their minds that the energy flows through. They're _not _normal people. Most can also see the energy with what they call 'mage sight'. They don't need a machine like you do."

Tom shook his head. "Weird. I don't suppose—"

At that moment, the company became aware of voices sounding further within the grove of trees they had entered. Tom and B'Elanna warily drew their phasers, while Kero put her hand to the hilt of her sword, and Ron readied his wand. As they drew closer, the words became audible.

"…no water here…" The voice was that of an elderly woman, but behind the quavering tone was a hint of steel that reminded Tom of his grandmother.

"According to my magic…sizable spring here…dried up…" Another woman's voice. This one sounded tired and irritated.

"But that's impossible!" a young girl's voice carried clearly to them. "Springs don't just dry up in five minutes!"

Ron gaped and lowered his wand. "Hermione," he whispered.

"One of your companions?" Tom asked in a low voice. The boy nodded.

B'Elanna stepped over to them, her tricorder out and beeping. "They're right," she said, brow furrowed with worry.

"About what?"

"The water. It's gone."

-------------------------------------

"How can a spring just up and disappear?" Tom Paris demanded grumpily—and loudly. Kerowyn winced. In the silence that followed, they became aware that the other group had also stopped talking.

"They would have to be deaf not to have heard that," she muttered irritably. "You'd better tell your friend you're here, and that we're friends," she added to Ron.

He nodded and slid off Sayvil's back. "Hermione? It's Ron. Are you all right?"

"Ron!" the girl's voice was bright with relief. "Yes, we're fine."

Ron heaved a sigh and started in the direction of the other group. Kero followed. "Harry's with you, then?" the boy called as he walked.

There was a brief silence. Then, "No. Professor McGonagall is here with me. He's not with you?"

"No." Ron picked up his pace. "But—Professor Mc—"

He stopped suddenly, openmouthed, as a tall, thin, elderly woman in a flowing green robe and pointed black hat stepped around a thicket of brambles and appeared before him. Two girls, one blond and one brunette, followed behind her, shadowed by a lanky lad in tunic and breeches.

"—Gonagall," Ron finished weakly. "How…?"

"It was all in the text of the spell you used, Mr. Weasly," the thin-lipped woman said tightly. "In the list of warnings you and your friends chose to ignore."

Ron gulped.

Paris stepped up beside Ron and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Uh, hi, Professor—McGonagall, was it?" he said ingratiatingly. "I'm Tom Paris. Lieutenant Tom Paris of the Starship Voyager. I gather that you are one of Ron here's teachers?"

The woman nodded, directing her piercing gaze toward the shining blue orbs that would have disarmed a lesser woman. _She's not buying that act,_ Kero thought a bit smugly. "Professor Minerva McGonagall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in London," the professor said stiffly, holding out her hand.

Tom shook it. "This is my wife, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres." If the unusual appearance of the half-Klingon startled her, the woman gave no sign of it as she shook her hand. "And this is our newfound friend Herald-Captain Kerowyn of Valdemar, and her Companion, Sayvil." Kero stepped up beside the two lieutenants.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain Kerowyn," McGonagall shook the blond woman's hand. "Sayvil," she added, somewhat to Kerowyn's surprise, nodding to the white creature.

"And I, yours, Professor McGonagall," Kero said, looking pointedly over the woman's shoulder.

McGonagall turned. "This is my student, Hermione Granger," she gestured to the dark-haired girl, "and this is Lady Sandreline Fa-Toren of Emelan, a newfound friend of ours, and the student of Dedicate Rosethorn, who is behind us studying our water situation. And the boy is Talen," she added hastily.

Lieutenant Torres nodded. "According to my tricorder, our water situation is now nonexistent."

McGonagall nodded grimly in return. "So we have discovered."

"But, Professor," the young girl named Hermione piped up, "that much water can't just disappear, can it?"

"Not without a very complicated summoning charm or heat spell, and I find it hard to believe anyone could have worked one without my sensing something," the woman replied, looking vexed. She turned to B'Elanna. "Perhaps you have a clearer idea what happened?"

The engineer shook her head. "I can't imagine what could have moved an entire spring without causing even a blip on my tricorder! Tom?"

Tom flipped out a machine identical to hers and punched buttons, obviously comparing his findings to hers. "Nope," he said after a few moments. "Nothing. It's like it was never there."

_:No one's used any magic, either,:_ Sayvil said, this time to Kero alone.

"Sayvil says no one's used any of our kind of magic to do it," she relayed to the others. She was a bit gratified to see Professor McGonagall's control slip a bit as she cast a startled look at the Companion, but then the witch simply nodded.

A small shriek from the former direction of the spring caused them all to jump. Then a brown-haired woman ran up to them. "There are more strangers coming," she said, addressing Professor McGonagall.

"Who, Dedicate Rosethorn?"

Before the newcomer could reply, a quiet, but somehow menacing male voice said triumphantly, "What did I tell you? It is gone."

Sayvil nudged her Chosen gently. _:Look at the wizard children.:_ Kero turned away from the direction of the voice to see Hermione and Ron staring at each other with expressions of horror. Oddly enough, Professor McGonagall seemed to share their horror, though underneath it there was something else—another emotion that Kero couldn't read.

"We knew that already," a lower voice growled from behind the thicket. "Tell us something new, why don't you."

"Sparhawk!" the boy Talen yelled.

Silence.

Then, "Talen?" a low, bell-like woman's voice answered.

"Sephrenia! Over here!"

Kero and the others stood still, hands on their weapons, as the new group approached. When the newcomers stepped around the thicket, everyone suddenly seemed to move at once, and very quickly. Professor McGonagall moved to intercept a tall, pale, greasy-haired man in a black robe before he could reach the two wizard children, who cringed away from him visibly. "Just a word with you, Professor Snape…"

The starship lieutenants hurried at once to a small woman in a red and black uniform. "…no one hostile that we can see, Captain….All in the same situation…" "…strange mental powers, though…"

Talen ran to a tiny, black-haired woman dressed in a simple white robe and kissed her palms in what looked like a ritual greeting of some kind. A knight in full armor then slapped the boy's back, making him stagger.

"…Herald-Captain Kerowyn. A mercenary captain in the service of the queen of a kingdom called Valdemar, on a world called Velgarth." B'Elanna said, as she and Tom approached with the woman they had hailed as their captain and another man in a similar uniform.

"Pleased to meet you, Herald-Captain. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the starship Voyager. And this is our ship's doctor." The smaller woman's handshake was firm and professional, but in no way a test or show of power.

Kero nodded. "Captain. Doctor."

"And the lovely white creature with her is her Companion, Sayvil. A telepathic horse," Tom added.

The 'lovely white creature' snorted indignantly. _:Tell Lieutenant Paris to save his charming flattery for the younger ladies, and remind him that I am not a horse, Chosen.:_

Kero laughed.

"What did she say?" B'Elanna asked curiously.

"That your husband should save his flattery for the younger ladies," Kero grinned. "And that she's not a horse."

Tom chuckled. "I beg your pardon," he said unrepentantly.

Sayvil ignored him and turned her sapphire blue eyes to Captain Janeway. Janeway's eyes widened, and she stepped back a pace. Tom and the other man moved toward her protectively, their hands on their weapons, but she raised a hand, gesturing them to be still. They obeyed instantly.

After a long moment, Sayvil turned back to Kero. Janeway swayed and grasped Tom's arm momentarily for support. _:Kero,:_ the Companion said seriously, _:If this woman lived in Valdemar, she would have been Chosen instantly.:_

"What was that all about?" Tom demanded.

"I'm not sure," Kero admitted, "but my Companion is very impressed with your captain."

"As I am with her," Janeway said wonderingly, shaking her head as if to clear it.

_:Chosen, we have a problem,:_ Sayvil said suddenly.

Kero looked in the same direction as her Companion, and noticed for the first time the chaos that surrounded them. Evidently, the rest of their company wasn't getting along as well as Kero was with the strange spacefarers.

The sinister-looking man McGonagall had addressed as Professor Snape had his wand out and was pointing it at Dedicate Rosethorn. "Who are you calling neurotic, you ugly, cross-patch of a woman?" he demanded silkily.

"Severus, no!" cried McGonagall.

The knight drew his sword, as did Kero. She felt the officers at her side reach for their phasers, and saw the two wizard students train their wands on their Professor, but before anyone had a chance to do anything more, green vines flew from Dedicate Rosethorn's hands and spun tightly around the greasy-haired man, pinning him to a tree.

"In case you are unaware, one of my students is still missing as well!" the strange woman's voice was harsh with anger. "And though I am deeply concerned about him, I am remaining calm in the hope that some of these others will be willing to help me find him! You, on the other hand, are sabotaging yourself with your own hostility. And I get the impression that you only care to find the boy because you'd like to punish him severely for getting you into this situation—something you won't do while I'm here!"

Professor McGonagall's wand hand twitched, but she did not raise it. "Dedicate Rosethorn, release my colleague at once!"

"Release him?" Rosethorn's student squeaked. "He tried to attack her!" Blue threads flew from her hands to pin Professor Snape more firmly to the tree, as the girl flew to her teacher's side.

McGonagall raised her wand.

"_ENOUGH!"_ Kerowyn yelled, in her best command voice. The others froze. "Have you all gone insane? Here we are all trapped on a desert world with no food or water, and the best solution all of you have is to fight each other?"

McGonagall lowered her wand, looking chagrined.

"And I'm to understand that there are at least two children that we know of still missing?" Kero allowed more contempt and incredulity to seep into her tone. "Don't you think the best use of our energy and resources would be in cooperating with each other and finding them?" With that she sheathed her sword and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at them.

Captain Janeway moved to stand at her side. "Herald-Captain Kerowyn is right," she said calmly. "We have nothing to gain by quarreling with one another." She gestured for her officers to join her, which they did instantly. "I recommend that we concentrate on finding the missing children, and I would like to offer the resources we have available for that purpose."

The tiny, dark-haired woman who had arrived with Captain Janeway stepped to Kerowyn's other side. "We will help in that task as well," she said. Talen followed her, and, after a moment, so did the big knight (though not without a directing a glare at Professor Snape).

Slowly and warily, the vines and threads that bound Professor Snape loosened and returned to their creators. "Perhaps I was overly hasty," Dedicate Rosethorn said, glancing apologetically at Professor McGonagall. "I certainly have no desire to fight with any of you." She moved to Captain Janeway's side, followed by her student.

The wizard children looked uncertainly towards the group standing together, then turned to Professor McGonagall. She was staring at her colleague.

Snape stood away from the tree and shook out his robes. "All right," he said, as if the previous exchange of insults had never occurred. "Let's get started, then."


	6. Aphrael Puts Her Foot In It

**Author's Note: **An update! Enjoy! And please don't forget to review!

**Disclaimer:** Honestly, if they belonged to me, would they be posted here? (Although the Marai are my own creations...)

**Chapter 6: Aphrael Puts Her Foot In It**

Captain Kathryn Janeway breathed a sigh of relief as the group of Wizards joined the rest of the company. The last thing they needed right now was an all-out fight between people with so many different and powerful weapons. Shaking her head, Janeway pulled out her tricorder. She was about to detail the most effective way of looking for the missing children, when the white-clad woman at her side beat her to it.

"All right, everyone," Herald-Captain Kerowyn said crisply. It's obvious that all of us have different mechanical and magical ways of getting information. I suggest, therefore, that each group searches in its own way, but that we pool our information before haring off on some lead we think we have and getting separated again."

Kathryn felt a twinge of annoyance as the other captain took her own words out of her mouth, but it faded almost immediately into the wry thought, _Too much alike, I suppose…_

There was a faint muttering among the others, and the knight very audibly grated out something about "...who said we wanted to stay together in the first place."

Kathryn sighed. "Herald-Captain Kerowyn is absolutely right again," she told the grumbling group. "We have a better chance of survival together than we do separately, if we can refrain from antagonizing one another long enough to get the job done." She turned to her own officers. "B'Elanna, Tom, Doctor, let's each take a direction and begin scanning the area for life signs."

The sight of the starship officers efficiently flipping out their tricorders apparently had a good effect on the rest of the group. Herald Kerowyn stood stock-still, staring fixedly at her companion, her hand for some reason on the hilt of her sword. Professors McGonagall and Snape took out their wands and began muttering under their breaths. Sephrenia began speaking and gesturing in her Styric language. Dedicate Rosethorn took her student and Hermione and Ron to one side, muttering something about looking for traces of Briar's magic on them.

But before any of them had done any more, B'Elanna let out a yelp. "Captain! My tricorder is picking up energy that usually indicates a Q in the area! About 10 meters due west!"

The others glanced up, startled. Kathryn bit out a curse and spun to point her tricorder in the same direction as B'Elanna's. _I should have known. _She thought grimly. _Who else could have arranged such an elaborate hoax? Wait till I get my hands on that interfering son-of-a—Wait a minute! That's not Q, that's—_

A tiny girl in a white smock marched out of the trees, leading two sheepish-looking boys by the hands. "I believe you've lost something?" she said, smiling sweetly and pushing the two boys toward the group.

"Aphrael!" Talen cried.

"I found them up a tree," the small being continued smugly.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice, shrill with relief, was nearly drowned out by Dedicate Rosethorn's.

"Briar! Come here at once!"

Both boys ran to their respective parties.

"Kathryn!" Aphrael turned on her suddenly and sharply. "Tell your people to keep those awful machines away from me!"

Janeway glanced at her officers. Tom and the Doctor were simply staring, but B'Elanna was trying to scan the entity with her tricorder. Janeway caught the engineer's eye. At her captain's slight nod B'Elanna reluctantly put her instrument away. Belatedly, Tom and the Doctor did so as well.

Sephrenia walked to Aphrael and held out her arms. The little girl swarmed into them, planting an affectionate kiss on the small woman's cheek. Kathryn took advantage of the being's distraction to study the data her own tricorder had picked up before whoever-she-was remembered to erase it.

_Hmmm…Interesting. Like Q and yet unlike. Obviously she has some control of space, time and matter…Definitely corporeal, but with an ability to change shape, apparently…And—now that's odd—she seems to be acquiring some sort of power from Sephrenia. I'd have thought it would be the other way around. I wonder if she's the cause of this situation?_

"Has what is supposed to happen happened yet?" Sephrenia asked her small friend.

Aphrael shook her head no.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kerowyn demanded suspiciously, glaring at the Styric woman.

"I think that question should properly be addressed to Aphrael, should it not?" Captain Janeway stated, giving the girl a level stare.

"Whatever do you mean?" the being smiled sweetly. Then her eyes narrowed as they fell on the tricorder in the captain's hands. "You dug into your nasty machine and found out about me!" she accused. "Kathryn, I'm very put out with you!"

Janeway's lips tugged upward as she controlled a smile. "When I'm dealing with a semi-omnipotent being," she said, ignoring the gasps of shock or disbelief from the people surrounding them, "I'll take every advantage I can get. Now, would you kindly tell us what the hell is going on here?"

"Semi-omnipotent?" the girl demanded in an insulted tone.

At the same moment, Professor Snape said loudly, "Observe the towering intellect of our comrade. What makes her believe a little girl knows anything at all about what has happened here?"

"Oh, and I suppose you do?" Sir Sparhawk growled.

Snape smiled in a supercilious manner. "As a matter of fact…"

"_Semi_-omnipotent?!" The being's tone of voice rose at least half an octave, causing Kathryn to wince and step back a pace.

"Please don't scream in my ear," Sephrenia murmured in a pained voice.

"I'm sorry, Sephrenia," Aphrael said contritely, glaring at Kathryn.

"If we could get back to what's going on!" The loudly spoken words came from the newly-arrived Wizard boy, and earned him approving looks from Kerowyn, Professor McGonagall and Dedicate Rosethorn.

"It all began when three of my students decided to play with a restricted spell," Professor Snape began nastily, glaring at the boy. He gulped nervously and moved closer to Professor McGonagall.

"When they say _spell_, they're for real, Captain," B'Elanna muttered quickly to her. "They can do what they say they can."

Janeway nodded acknowledgement. "What sort of a spell was it, Professor?" she asked. "I'm not familiar with your tech—ah—kind of magic."

Kathryn and the rest of the company listened carefully to the ensuing explanation of Witchcraft and Wizardry in general, and the Adservioso Spell in particular, as given by Professor McGonagall in a precise, lecture-hall tone of voice. Kathryn nearly laughed aloud at the poleaxed expressions on the faces of her officers when it struck home that the Witches and Wizards standing before them were from Earth, nearly four centuries in their past. _I wonder where these people are in our century?_ She wondered. A bit dazedly, she envisioned a Wizarding colony somewhere in the far reaches of Earth's solar system. A small shock traveled through her when she realized how entirely possible that was.

"However, never, _never_, in my experience, have the effects of any spell gone beyond the reaches of our own planet," the witch concluded, looking harassed, weary and just a bit frightened. "Please believe me when I say that this entire debacle is a huge and unfortunate accident."

_They expect to be blamed for this,_ Kathryn realized. She opened her mouth to reassure the woman, but Aphrael beat her to it.

"No it isn't."

Everyone turned to stare at the child in Sephrenia's arms. "What do you mean?" Kerowyn demanded.

"It isn't an accident," the girl clarified. "The Wizards' spell was just a trigger. So was their trying to pull them out," she pointed to Rosethorn and her two students. "So was Kathryn's decision to enter the funnel to the Alpha Quadrant."

"That was all a trick?" B'Elanna demanded in outrage.

Kathryn raised her hand quellingly and B'Elanna subsided with a growl. "Aphrael," the captain said, fixing the strange entity with what she knew her officers referred to as her 'death glare', "why have you brought us here?"

Aphrael smiled winningly. "Why, Kathryn," she said innocently, "what makes you think it was _me_?"

-----------------------------------

"If you didn't bring us here, who or what did?" the starship captain demanded, her crisp voice cold. Snape shook out his robe impatiently. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why everyone thought a girl younger than a Hogwarts first year would know anything. Everyone seemed to simply assume that the space captain knew something they didn't. He snorted. He could hardly believe that the woman commanded a spaceship. If he were her superior, he wouldn't put her in charge of a simple cleaning detail!

The little girl grinned. "If you walk due South for another few minutes, you'll find out," she said impishly. Then she slipped out of Sephrenia's arms and vanished. Snape did a double-take. _That_ certainly complicated matters!

Captain Janeway and Captain Kerowyn exchanged glances, one wryly humorous, the other annoyed and resentful. Snape sympathized with the latter.

"Should we do as she said?" Kerowyn asked the other captain doubtfully.

Janeway glanced quizzically at the big ugly knight's tiny keeper. "Do we have a choice?" she asked ruefully.

Sephrenia sighed and shook her head. "Not if we want to find out what's going on."

"Captain," the woman with the ugly ridges on her forehead tapped Janeway on the shoulder and presented her 'tricorder' for her superior's perusal with a sigh of exasperation. "My tricorder is showing a spring about half a kilometer due south. It's identical to the one that was supposed to be here."

"Bait," another officer--Paris something, he thought--said succinctly.

Janeway echoed her engineer's sigh. "I think so. Let's get going."

The spacefarers turned south and began walking. Aphrael's contingent moved with them. The others looked at each other uneasily, then slowly followed them.

"Why do I have the feeling we're being herded?" Kerowyn said to no one in particular.

"Because we are," Snape grumbled to himself. "And that woman is leading us into a trap."

The company stepped out of the grove of trees into the blinding sunlight and scorching heat. Snape's eyes started watering as they adjusted to the brilliance, and he surreptitiously wiped them on the sleeve of his robe.

"Look!" At Potter's surprised cry, Snape's head jerked up. In the distance he could make out what looked like a pavilion, and behind it, an enormous lake.

"What the – " he couldn't say which spaceperson uttered the exclamation, as all four of them pulled out their machines and began furiously punching buttons.

Beside him, Minerva was muttering, "First tenant of magical theory…Can't make something out of nothing…Impossible…" She broke off to shout, "Harry! Ron! Hermione! Come back at once!" but it was too late. All three children, along with Dedicate Rosethorn's two students and the boy Talen had taken off for the water without a thought.

Grumbling, Snape hitched up his robes and took off after them.

------------------------------------------

The children raced right around the pavilion without giving it so much as a second glance, and threw themselves into the water with the abandon of six young puppies. As much as she wished she could join them, Sephrenia stopped in front of the pavilion with Captain Kerowyn, mounted on Sayvil, and Captain Janeway and her officers. They turned to wait for the others to catch up.

Sparhawk, his armor clanking, was one of the first, though his face was pale, and dripping with sweat. _That black armor of his is going to be a serious problem,_ the Styric woman thought with a frown. Dedicate Rosethorn came next, holding a hand to her side as if in pain. The Professors brought up the rear, obviously exhausted and unused to so much physical exertion. Panting and gasping, the motley crew formed a ragged line before the pavilion.

Rosethorn, McGonagall and Sparhawk shouted for their respective charges as soon as they caught their breaths. The children clambered out of the lake and returned to the adults, dripping and grinning.

"Captain, three life signs in the pavilion. One is Aphrael." B'Elanna's voice was raspy with the dry heat, and she wasn't the only one to glare at the six kids and then look longingly at the lake.

Janeway, however, just nodded grimly, drew her phaser, and led the way into the pavilion. The others followed, and Sephrenia and Sparhawk were the only ones who didn't draw their weapons. He shot her a quizzical look as they prepared to enter. She could only roll her eyes and shrug. _I don't know any more than you do, dear one,_ she thought helplessly.

Two women in long, flowing robes stood in the center of the pavilion, obviously waiting for them. They held up their empty hands in a universal gesture of goodwill. "You won't need your weapons here," one said.

The company lowered, but did not put away, their wands, swords and phasers, and the woman sighed a little. She was short, with auburn hair that curled softly around her narrow shoulders. Her wide, blue eyes were both keen and kind, and her face, though ageless, was deeply lined, as if many deeply felt past experiences had engraved themselves on it, rendering it both inexpressibly gentle and terribly strong. Her robes were purple, and a sash of a darker hue was bound over her shoulder, bearing as an insignia two white masks, one happy, one sad.

Her companion's robes were grey, and her concert-black sash's insignia was a strange grey box with a screen and a set of buttons. The woman herself was tall, slim and graceful. Her features were striking; piercing brown eyes framed by long, dark lashes and dark, gently arching eyebrows. Her cheekbones were high, her jaw determined, and her mouth wide, with full, red lips. Her brown hair was piled stylishly on top of her head.

Sephrenia's goddess stood with them. Her Styric robes now bore an unmistakable resemblance to those worn by the strange women, and she wore a green sash across one shoulder. "Copycat," Sephrenia murmured, amused.

"I heard that, Sephrenia!" the Child-Goddess snapped.

"My, my," Sephrenia said blandly. Kathryn Janeway covered a smile with her hand, and some of the tension seeped out of the group.

"Are you goddesses too?" Sparhawk, ever blunt, addressed the two women with Aphrael.

The purple-robed woman looked horrified at the idea, and opened her mouth to speak, but the woman in grey laughed and placed a gently restraining hand on her companion's arm. "I suppose you could call us that," she answered lightly, "if you're concerned with labels. We _are_ much like your Aphrael," she continued, "but we do not need or want your worship, and we serve a power greater than ourselves."

"You should've left that last part out," Aphrael told the woman. "Always make them believe you're the most powerful person in the universe."

The woman laughed. "Now why would we want to do that?"

"Besides, we already know you aren't," Kathryn's Tom Paris told the little girl, grinning cheerfully. "_Semi_-omnipotent, remember?" He thought for a moment. "I'd like to see you come up against Q."

The Child-Goddess glared at him, but Tom's insouciant smile was impenetrable. Sephrenia suppressed a chuckle.

"I like your sense of humor, friend," Sparhawk muttered to the spaceman. "We should discuss Q in depth one day."

"I heard that, too, Sparhawk!" The little goddess stamped her foot.

"You're overhearing lots of things not meant for your ears, aren't you?" Sparhawk observed mildly. "Bad day?"

Aphrael looked incoherent with rage.

"Hit him," B'Elanna suggested. "Always works for me."

Before the Child-Goddess could take the half-Klingon woman's suggestion, Captain Kerowyn pushed through the company to stand before the two robed women, who were listening to the repartee with amused smiles. Kerowyn's horse--_no, Companion,_ Sephrenia remembered--matched her, step for step. "I'm not interested in who or what you are so much as why we're all here," she told them, hands on her hips. "Am I right in assuming you brought us here?"

The purple-robed woman nodded. "Yes."

"Why?" Captain Janeway moved to stand beside Captain Kerowyn.

The woman sighed a bit wearily. "The answer to that is rather complex--Captain, I believe is your correct title?" Janeway nodded. "Let's begin again," the woman continued. "I am Lena, and my friend is Katerina. We are not permitted to tell any of you very much about ourselves, but I can say that we are of a race known as the Marai. You are not prisoners here. If anyone wishes to leave, we can and will send you back where you came from."

The other woman--Katerina--nodded her agreement, and added, "That said, I fear we must beg you not to leave until you listen to what we have to say. We rather desperately need your help."

Professor Snape stirred. "I doubt that even you will be able to send any of us from Hogwarts back," he said nastily.

Katerina laughed. "No, that's true. You have very effectively made yourselves the prisoners of your own spell. You _cannot_ leave until you have helped us."

The bad-tempered professor glared at his three students, and appeared gratified to see them shrink away from him.

Briar glanced from Sandry to his teacher, then faced the two Marai. "I dunno about my mates," he said, "but I say we got into this scrape tryin' to help the Hogwarts kids, and I ain't gonna leave till I know what's gonna happen to 'em!"

Sandry exchanged a long look with Hermione, then said decidedly, "I agree."

The auburn-haired Marai--Lena--smiled approvingly, and as the two students turned defiant gazes to their teacher, the woman did the same.

Dedicate Rosethorn sighed. "We will at least listen to what you have to say," she said, a bit reluctantly.

"We will, also," Captain Janeway stated. She was clearly intrigued, and judging from her three officers' expressions, so were they. Being given assurance that they could leave if they wished seemed to have dispelled most of their worries for the time being. Sephrenia also suspected that leaving the Wizards to fend for themselves in an unknown situation would sit ill with all four of them.

Kerowyn was apparently having a silent discussion with her horse. When her eyes returned to the women they were reassured but still wary. "We'll stay, for now," she said shortly.

_:We're not sure we trust your motives, but I find no evil in you,:_ the horse added, the words echoing in all their minds. Several people started violently.

"You are quite wise, Sayvil," Lena said. "It is our job in the next few hours to better convince you of both our motives and of the necessity of your assistance."

"What of your people?" Katerina turned to Aphrael, a hint of malicious amusement in her eyes. "Have you informed them of our arrangement?"

"Arrangement?" Sparhawk barked out, turning to Sephrenia. "What arrangement?"

Sephrenia shrugged and cast a sharp look at her goddess.

Aphrael ignored them both. "Sephrenia's mine, so she stays," she told the Marai. "But I don't own the other two, so they'll have to decide for themselves."

"_Own_?" Kathryn asked Sephrenia, looking horrified.

"Remind me to explain that sometime," the Styric priestess of Aphrael murmured back. "It's not quite what you think."

"You know I'd never leave Sephrenia by herself on a strange world," Sparhawk growled at Aphrael. "Remind me to let you know sometime how much I disapprove of the tactics you've used here. I'm staying, of course."

Talen cast a shy look at Sandry, then said he'd stay, too. This caused Aphrael to look even more put out than she had earlier, and Sephrenia had to struggle to keep a straight face. Observing the Child-Goddess's discomfort, Katerina chuckled heartlessly.

"I have to go," the little girl said huffily. "I'm very busy, so try not to get yourselves into too much trouble and interrupt me constantly. _Goodbye, Talen_," she added loudly.

"Bye, Aphrael," the boy said absently, still staring at Sandry. The glare she favored him with just before she disappeared was equally lost on him.

Sparhawk let out a guffaw, and Sephrenia felt it her duty to chide him for it. "Be nice, Sparhawk," she whispered, resolutely ignoring the smile threatening to break onto her own face.

The smile Lena was giving them all was formed of pure relief. "If you have all decided to stay," she said, "let's go somewhere more comfortable than the Desolation Planet. Follow me, please."

As Sephrenia fell in behind Kathryn's officers and the company exited the pavilion, B'Elanna Torres got the last word. "Somebody around here sure knows how to name planets."

-------------------------------

Hermione cast a glance back over her shoulder as the company followed the two Marai away from the pavilion. Then she craned her neck to stare. The pavilion was gone! And so was the huge lake! And not only that… She nudged Harry and Ron, who walked one on each side of her. "Do you notice something very odd, gentlemen?" she asked quietly.

"What, you mean besides everything?" Ron asked sarcastically.

Hermione glared. "No, I mean something specifically odd," she hissed.

"I don't get it, Hermione. Stop talking around whatever you're trying to say."

By now the three other young people were listening in as well. Hermione gave a patently exasperated sigh and said pointedly, "I am very hot, aren't all of you?"

"Well, of course we are," Ron snorted. "It's bloody 100 degrees out here—"

"No, but we _shouldn't_ be hot!" Sandry's voice, suddenly shrill, cut him off.

Harry's eyes widened. "We're all completely dry, even though we jumped in a lake about five minutes ago," he said slowly.

They stared at each other. Then Hermione spoke again, smiling a little smugly. "What lake, Harry?"

"Oh, for— That one!" Harry turned to point, but he could quickly see, as could the others, that there was nothing there.

"_What_ is going on here?" Ron demanded loudly.

"We're stopping," Tom Paris answered, putting out a hand to stop the boy from bumping into him from behind.

Hermione stopped too, just barely avoiding bumping into Ron. They were standing on a large black X seemingly seared into the sun-scorched sand.

"This is an—a transport site, if you will," Katerina was explaining. "It will allow all of us to jump from this planet to my own, which is far more hospitable, as I'm sure you'll agree. I will—ah—activate it as soon as I'm sure we are all touching. I don't want to leave anyone behind. Please, everyone, take your neighbors' hands."

Hermione instantly grasped Harry's hand on one side and Ron's on the other, while Ron took Lieutenant Paris' and Harry grabbed Briar, who was holding onto Sandry. Talen shyly placed his hand into Sandry's, and took hold of Sir Sparhawk's on his other side. Tiny lady Sephrenia slipped quickly between Sparhawk and Professor Snape, who were glaring at one another and holding their hands stiffly at their sides in a most childish display of arrogance and dislike, and not for the first time, Hermione marveled at the fact that adults were often more childish than any child.

Lena took Snape's other hand. On Lieutenant Paris' other side was his wife, then the rest of the starship officers, and then Dedicate Rosethorn, who rather warily took Katerina's proffered hand. When the two Marai joined hands the desolate desert planet disappeared, and they were suddenly standing under a tree facing a magnificent, pearl-grey marble building.


End file.
